The city will ask the MountainStar Sports Group investors for a personal guarantee of the additional $12.1 million the group recently agreed to pay toward the Downtown ballpark after the City Council on Tuesday voted in favor of making the request.

An attorney for MountainStar said that the answer will be no but that he would take the request back to the group.

City Rep. Eddie Holguin asked for the guarantee and said the taxpayers should get "some kind of collateral in case MountainStar goes bankrupt." His motion was approved 6-2 by the council on Tuesday, with city Reps. Ann Morgan Lilly and Larry Romero voting against the request.

The motion didn't include a consequence of any kind if MountainStar doesn't agree to the guarantee, which city attorneys said means the ballpark deal remains in effect as is regardless of the group's response. No time frame for a response was set.

City Attorney Sylvia Borunda Firth said the request in no way breaks the city's contractual agreements with MountainStar for the Triple-A ballpark. The city last year agreed to build the ballpark by 2014 at the site of the former City Hall building if MountainStar bought a minor league team and brought it to El Paso.

MountainStar officials said Tuesday they had no comment and stood by a statement made to the El Paso Times last week.

"We will not renegotiate the terms of the agreement that have been approved by both parties, and will not provide a personal guarantee," the group said in its statement, which cited the public-private partnership with the city for the ballpark.

City Manager Joyce Wilson, responding to a question by city Rep. Cortney Niland, said the city had previously asked the MountainStar investors for a personal guarantee but the group refused. Holguin said the city at that time should have ceased negotiations with the group.

REPORTER

Cindy Ramirez

The council last week voted to increase the ballpark's price tag to $60.8 million, including issuing the bonds for the project and doubling the annual lease payments from MountainStar for use of the city-owned stadium. Under the new lease, the group's annual rent will double to $400,000 a year, and escalate 10 percent every five years. The term of the lease and non-relocation agreement was extended from 25 to 30 years.

Saying city officials negotiated a poor contract with MountainStar, Holguin said a partnership should be 50-50 but didn't believe the ownership group is paying its share.

Mark Osborn, an attorney for MountainStar, said Tuesday the group has already invested $25 million and will pay $30 million in rent, ticket surcharges and parking revenues to the city over 30 years.

Mayor Oscar Leeser, who can't vote on agenda items but can break tie votes or veto council action, said he wanted the city to move forward with the stadium but also believed the guarantee was in the public's best interest.

"We are not trying to undo anything that has been done," Leeser said.

He later added that he thought Holguin's request was fair because it was better to be proactive rather than reactive.

"Our job is to minimize risk for our citizens and try to have no risk," Leeser said after Osborn said any venture comes with risk.

Cindy Ramirez may be reached at cramirez@elpasotimes.com; 546-6151.

The City Council on Tuesday also took action on the following items:

Payday loans: The council rejected a settlement offer from civil rights activist Carl Starr on the city's payday loans ordinance it approved in January. Starr was looking to do away with or amend the ordinance, which requires all payday and car-title loan companies to register with the city by July 1 and limits the amount that can be borrowed and how many times the loans can be renewed.

Instead, city attorneys will prepare an amendment to the ordinance to extend its implementation for six months. City attorneys said that will give them time to see how courts in other Texas cities facing lawsuits over similar ordinances will rule.

Patriot Place, Three Legged Monkey: The council authorized the city attorney's office to negotiate a settlement with Patriot Place, the shopping center that houses the Three Legged Monkey bar, and to withdraw its objection to the bankruptcy filings from both if an agreement is reached. The city has been at odds with Patriot Place and the Three Legged Monkey over the lease of the city-owned property over what neighbors consider too much noise, overcrowding, numerous police calls and alleged lack of security at the bar.

Mayors pro tempore: The council elected city Rep. Cortney Niland to serve as the mayor pro tem, who substitutes for the mayor in his absence, and elected city Rep. Eddie Holguin as the alternate mayor pro tem.